Officials in the Palm Beach County School District are gearing up for the Monday, Aug. 10 beginning of the 2026-27 school year as questions swirl regarding the district’s enrollment and future finances.
The Trump Administration’s decision to end temporary protective status for Haitians, which got court approval on Aug. 5, could cut further into the district’s enrollment, which was down at one point by 7,900 students last year compared with the year before.
South Florida is home to the largest population of Haitians outside of the Caribbean island, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2010 and, more recently, wracked by political instability and violence so intense the U.S. government has warned its citizens not to travel there. Thousands of Haitians came to the U.S. after the earthquake through the TPS program, which allows citizens of other nations to temporarily come to the U.S. in the wake of a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances.
Their stay in the U.S. was extended during the Obama and Biden administrations, but Trump has sought to end it, arguing that TPS has become what his administration describes as “a de facto amnesty program.” Haitian families across the country now face the prospect of an abrupt return to their troubled homeland.
Superintendent Mike Burke said he is not sure how the end of TPS for Haitians will impact the district’s enrollment, which was projected to be down by nearly 3,000 students before the Trump administration’s TPS decision won final court approval.
The district has already felt some affects from the decision.
“The immediate impact is we lost 19 employees, members of team Palm Beach that we hated to see go,” Burke said in a back-to-school interviews with The Palm Beach Post. “We had bus drivers, food service workers, one teacher, some substitutes. So, we’re down 19 staff members that we’re working to backfill. I’m not sure how it’s going to play out with enrollment at this point. Last year, we were kind of surprised by the drop in enrollment. It was not on our radar to expect that type of decline.”
Why the November ballot is important to Palm Beach County schools
The district’s state funding is tied to enrollment, and fewer students mean less state funding. Burke said that funding is not enough to offer the vast array of programs the district makes available to students and pay teachers enough to afford live in one of the most expensive counties in the state.10.0.00
A referendum on whether to extend again a schools property tax is on the ballot in November. Money generated by the tax is used to boost teacher pay and school security.
State law bars Burke from campaigning for passage of that referendum, but he laid out what that tax money has meant to the district since voters first passed the schools property tax in 2018.
“After years of being at the bargaining table and not being able to do enough for our teachers, we said, ‘Look, if we want to bring in more money, we’re going to have to do it ourselves,'” Burke said. “So, we went to the voters and asked them to tax themselves so we could increase teacher pay, and it would enhance security and maintain our choice programs.”
The property tax money is used to give teachers salary “supplements.”
After a year of experience, teachers get a $1,000 annual supplement added to their base pay. Teachers with five to nine years of experience get a $5,000 annual supplement, and those with 10 or more years of experience get an annual supplement of $10,000.
The additional pay augments the teacher’s pension as well. Burke said having the schools property tax money to boost teacher pay allows the district to use other money to pay for advanced academic and job training programs.
“Without those dollars, we could not offer everything that we have in place,” he said. “And we really want to hang onto those things. All of the nice things that we’re able to do is because of that local money. If we were left to just the state money, we’d have to scale way back on a variety of fronts.”
And now is not the time to scale back, he argued, not when private schools and homeschooling loom as potential landing spots for students the district wants in its schools.
“We rolled out the red carpet for the class of 2039,” Burke said. “Those would be our incoming kindergarteners. We provided a readiness kit to make sure they’re ready to go on the first day. We have a new Office of Admissions and Family Experience that’s going to do heightened marketing. We realize we’re in a very competitive market, and so this is our way of making sure we do a better job of highlighting all of the great programs we have to offer families.”
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: End of TPS for Haitians could add to county’s school enrollment woes
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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By Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
